My Q account has been compromised and accessed! What do I do?
If you receive a valid message from Q informing you that someone else has authed to your account, then:
1) First make sure that the message originates from Q, and that there is nothing obviously wrong with it. If in doubt, perform a /MSG Q WHOAMI and Q will tell you who is currently authed to your account. Proceed when you are sure someone has authed to your account without permission.
2) Attempt to change the account password by MANUALLY typing the /MSG Q@CServe.quakenet.org NEWPASS oldpassword newpassword newpassword command yourself. Do not copy/paste from someone or something else.
3) If Q reports that the old password is wrong, then the offending user has already changed the password before you did. In this event, you will get an e-mail from Q with instructions on how to proceed.
4) If the user has changed both the account password AND e-mail, then Q will automatically send an e-mail to the OLD e-mail address. It will contain a RESET command to change the e-mail address back to what it was before. Make use of this, and return to step 3.
Be quick, the RESET can only be used within 24 hours.
If the user stays on the account, or you cannot regain control of it, you must contact the owners of any channels that you are on, and have your flags removed from it immediately. Otherwise, the malicious user may try and use the account to disrupt channels where you have Q access.
If you find yourself unable to access the account, and unable to recover it, you must create a new one with /MSG Q HELLO, and arrange for flags to be re-added onto it by channel owners. If your old account was an owner on some channels and the offending user has taken them over by giving his own account ownership there, you may come to #help and explain the situation.
If you manage to re-secure your account and the user logs off, be sure that both the e-mail address and password are both correctly set.
Other help articles under Q
- Can I move Q to another channel?
- How do I remove Q from a channel?
- How do I request Q?
- How to register an account with Q?
- Managing your Q account.
- My Q account has been compromised and accessed! What do I do?
- My Q account is suspended!
- Q has left my channel, why?
- Setting the contact e-mail address.
- Why don't you make Q accounts more secure?